The Up-to-Date Peimer. FF.B i- 1898 ,/ THE ALPHABET AND PREFATORY REMARKS- THE . BENGOUGH Designed f9r me in Schools, Colleges, Universities and other Seats of Learning NEW TOBK FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY London and Toronto 1896 n/ .f. ill]] COPTBIGHT, 1895, FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY Registered in Stationers' Hall, London, England. PBINTED IN THE UNITED STATlft THE TJP-TO-Di^TE PKIMER. LESSON I. Cat Is this a Gat? O, see tlie Kat ! Men Why do Men beg ? Hog See the fat Hog. Hat Get on to the Hat. Fill it with Kent. >^^K^^ The Cat will go for the Rat ! 6 ■ A^A^^ r^'-^-~— ■-— - - n M C^^z^f2mw^^ ^H ,/7^^ M: - " ■ Y/y~~~~~ — -wr- — ; ' 4^^-^--^,? LESSON 11. !« — TfL Here is a man who Begs. Why does lie not Work ? He would, but he Can not get a Job. Can he not Go on the Land? No; for a Fat Man Owns it, and this is the Hat he holds out for Rent. It is a great Scheme. See the Rat. '~t^lj| It does no Work, but just Feeds on our Goods and is a Pest we would fain be Rid of. See the Cat. Can the Cat run ? You bet. She will Kill the Rat. Then we will take the ||^^v out of the the Fat Man's i^ame. LESSON III. Pike Owns Stream Or Get Out Perch Must Pay What is it ? It is a Fish. It has a Name. The Name is Pike. It is a big Fish and can Bite. See its Teeth. Can a Fish live on the Land ? No, it will die on Land. But see, the small Fish is on the Land. Will the small Fish die? Yes, it will. Why does it go on Land, then ? The Pike drove it to the Land. The small Fish is a Perch. Is not the Pike a bad Fish to do so ill a deed ? It is, but you must not say so. Do you not see that the Pike owns the Stream, and so has a right to get Rent for the use of the Stream from the Perch ? But the Perch can not pay, and so has to get out. The Pike means no ill, but Biz is Biz. But should it be the Law that a Pike may own a Stream? Ah, now you have hit it. No, it should not. Such a law is bad — for Perch. LESSON IV. Crow Owns Air Jay Must Work Keep Crow Fat See the Bird! It is a Ijiack Bird, m it not? They call it a Crow. It is a fat Crow, but it does not Work. How, then, does it keep so Fat ? Do you not see the Small Bird ? Yes, I see it. Well, that is a Jay. It has to Work and find Grub for the Crow, so the Crow may sit on the tree all day and have a Good Time. But is not the Jay a Jay in truth to do so? So you may think, but the poor Jay does not do this for Fun. Oh, no! You see, the Crow owns the Air, and will not let the Jay use it but on these Terms : the Jay must pay Rent or he can not fly nor sit on a Rock, so you see the Fix he is in. Poor Jay ! Yes, he is Poor, but the Crow is Fat. What a soft Snap the Crow has, to be sure! It is a Fine Thing to own the Air, is it not? LESSON V. Rose Will ^ Imp In Not Owns Pot Live Light What is This? Do you not See what it is? No, it is so Dark I can not See what it is. Well, I will tell you. It is a Kose in a Pot. But I do not see the Rose nor the Pot ; it is all Black and Dark. Quite so, my Dear, but do you know why it is Dark? No, I do not; but a Rose can not live in the Dark, can it? No, it can not. Thfit is just where the Trick comes in. You see, there is an Imp who Owns the Light, and he says the Rose must pay him for its use or he will shut it off and let the Rose die. Well, the Rose can not Pay, and so the Light is shut off. That is how it is that you do not see the Rose when you look. Poor Rose ! Bad Imp ! No, do not say Bad, he Owns the Light, you know, and that makes it quite the Right thing. I hope you see the Point. 9 LESSON VI. Poor Man Holds Slave Owns The Bows Him Whip See the poor Slave and the Man with the Wliip. Will he Hit the Slave? It would be Just like him to do so. Is he not a bad Man to beat the poor Slave ? Oh, no ; don't you see he Owns the Slave and may do with him as he will ? The Law says a Man may Own a Slave, and that ends it. But it is a bad law for the Slave, is it not? Yes. It is not nice to be a Slave. You must Work, and you get no Wage. But the Slave gets his Keep, does he not? Yes, the Man that owns him must give him Food and take care of him. So it is not such a bad Thing, when you come to see it > like that. I know lots of Men that would be glad to Work for their Keep right here in this Town, where Me don't have Slaves at all. They would not be so likely to Starve as they are now, though they are Free. 10 LESSON VII. This Not Slave Oh Dear No Man Owns Land Is this a Slave, too? No, we do not call this a Slave. The Law has now set the Slave free. But does not the Man with the Plug Hat own the Man with the Bare Head? No, he does not Own him. All men are Born Free in this good Land, you know. Then why does the small Man kneel down to the big Man, and say he will Work for him for a Wage that will just get him a Bite to eat and a Roof for his Head? Is not that the Talk of a Slave? It is Like it, my dear, but he is a Free Man, as I have told you. The big Man does not own Him, but he Owns the Land, and as the Man can not live if he does not Work, and as he can not work if he has not the Use of the Land, he is just like the Fish out of the Stream, or the Jay who must use the Air, or the Rose that needs the Light. See? 11 LESSON VIII. Man Fruits Life Lost Of ^ And Bigrht Toil r Land How came M^n to make such a bad Plan as we now have? I will tell you. At first the Land of the World was Free to All, and each Man had the Right to the Fruit of his Toil. When there was a War, the Side that came off Best brought home great Crowds of their Foes. These, if not put to Death, were kept as Slaves, as a kind boon. But the Men who held the Slaves had to Feed them, and they soon saw it was best to Own the Land, and so they too] the Land and the Slave was made a Serf. Then, as time went on, the Wage plan came to be, and the Serf gave Way to the Wage Slave. As Bond Slave, Serf, or Wage Slave, the Fruits of the Man's toil went to him who was the Boss. You see, the Rights Man lost in the War are still lost. The Boss still Owns the Land, and we have the Wage Slave with us this day. 12 God Made Men FEB IS lw5 LESSON IX. Each Owns Self May Work Who Owns the Man ? God, who made him, Owns him, but he gives Man a Free Will. Man has a Right to Life, and to be Free, and to seek Joy in this world. So he has a Right to that which he needs that he may Live. He must have Air or he will die; he must have the Light of the Sun or he can not live, and he must have Food and Clothes, and a Roof for his head. So he must have Right to use Land or he can have none of these Things. Nor can he be Free if he must Pay- for the use of the things God has made by which he must Live; and he can not find Joy in this life if he is not Free, or if he must keep his Nose to the Wheel of Toil from the day he comes in to the World to the day he dies. Man does not live just for Bread; he Needs a chance to Train his Mind as God meant he should. 13 LESSON X. -: Men And Right Are Also To Free E-qual Chance Are all Men of the same Size? No, some are Tall, some are Short ; some Fat, some Slim. Can they all be made of the same Size? By no Means. Are they all the same in Mind? No; some are Smart and some Dull, nor can they be made the same in mind, try how you will. Then how is it you say all Men are born Free and E-qual? Is it not Bosh to talk in such a way ? No, my Child, it is not Bosh, if you have due care as to what you Mean by the Words. We mean by Free that Men are born with a Kight to Life, and by E-qual that they are born with a Right to an E-qual Chance to use those Things that they need to keep Life in them. These Things are all in the word Land. The One- tax plan will make a way for Man to get the use of the Land, with no call to pay a Land Lord, and so it will make Men Free and E-qual in the right Sense. 14 LESSON XL Work Makes Wealth Man Gets Fat Though Don't Toil But look at these Two ! Are they not both Men ? They are. Yet one is Fat and Rich, and one is Lean and Poor! How comes this? It must be that the Fat one has a will to Work, and so by bis Toil on the Land gets all the Good Things he needs, while the Lean one will not Work and so must needs Starve and go in Rags. So it would seem, my Child ; but things are not as they seem. The Fat Man here does not Work at all, and the Thin Man would fain Work for his Food, but can not get Work to do. Is this not Queer ? Yes, it is Queer. But it will be Plain when I tell you that the Fat Man owns the Land, and lives on the Land Rent. Can a Man own Land as he may own a Thing which the hand of Man may make? Yes, and that is the Law we must Mend if we would Cure the Deep Ills we see. 15 LESSON XII. Man Owns Hat Can Make Same CanH Make Land What is this ? It is a Hat. Is it a plug Hat ? No, it is just a Hat. Feel it, my Child, for it may be Felt. Does the Man own the Hat? Yes, it is his. But how do you know it is his? Why may a man own a Hat if he may not own Land? Well, you see, Man may make a Hat, or he may buy one from the Man who has made it, and pay him for it. So when he has paid for it or made it, it is his Own. He may then Wear it, or Hide it, or Burn it, or Lend it, or Rent it out. If he puts it out of Use he does no harm to Men, for a new Hat can be made in its place. But a Man can not Make a piece of Land, nor can he Buy it from God who made it, and if he puts it out of Use he does Harm to Men, and so he may not own Land in the same way that he owns a Hat. 16 i/ns LESSON XIII. May Own Sheep They Are Bred Not Like Land See the Sheep. It is a nice Fat Sheep and has long Wool. Does a Man own the Sheep ? Yes, the Man that owns the Hat owns the Sheep as well. But how can he own a Sheep ? He may own a Hat, for he can make it. But he may not own Land, which he can not Make, you say. Quite right, my Child. Then how can he own a Sheep ? — for he can no more make Sheep than Land. Yes, in a way he can make Sheep. Sheep are Bred by Man. He can so deal with them as to have more Sheep than now. He can, if he see fit, Wipe out all Sheep, so there would be not One left, but he can not make the Land more or less than God made it. And so the Sheep is not like Land, but it is a Thing which Man may own, as is the Ox, the Horse, the Pig, and all the Beasts we see in the World. 17 World Goods Grows Price Full Falls LESSON XIV. Land Gets High Here you see a Sheep and a Hat on one Side, and a Lot of Land next to them. The Worth of such things as Sheep or Hats is a Worth of what we call Trade, and is High or Low as it Costs more or less to make or breed such things. As Man finds out new Ways to save Toil, or as the Crowd grows, such things grow more Cheap, for they may be made or bred with more ease, and there is more Sale for them. But the Worth of Land is a Worth not of Trade but of " Take," and is high or low as more or less Land may be thus got and held. And so it comes that the Worth of Land goes up just as the Crowd grows big, for there is Just so much Land in the World and no more. So a tax on Goods, as it must be paid by those who use the Goods, adds to the Price, but a tax on Land tends to make Land cheap. 18 LESSON XV. Man May Earth But Must Pay Ijand Rent There is but One way by which a Man may be Just to the Race of Men and yet own a bit of the Earth or the Whole of it. What is that? It is that he shall give a Fair Price to the Whole Race, for whom God made it. But what is a Fair Price? Not a Lump sum paid to any One Man, for that does the Rest no good. Not a Lump sum paid to the State, for though that is Fair to all who now Live, it does no good to the Race soon to be born in the World, and whose Rights are as good as our own. What, then, is a fair Price ? The Ground Rent, to be paid each Year in to the State Till. That is Just, both to these who now Live, and those yet to be Born ; and it is Just, too, to the Man who wants to own the Land. So, you see, the One-tax plan would be Just all round. 19 fOP*. JAut *•< LESSON XYI. Land By Out Rent ' God's Of Springs Law Ground Was Man made to live a Lone life ? No; God meant Men to live in the Town and each to love and help the Eest. But when Men come to live in a Crowd they need a Purse or Till, out of which to Pay for the Things they need for the use of All, such as Lights, Streets, Cops, Schools, and so on. Did God think of this when He made Man ? Yes, my Child. So He made a great Law. It Works in this way : When Men come in a Crowd — such as a Town — the Land, which had no worth ere they came, gets to be worth so much per Foot. Why? It is worth 80 much for the Chance to do biz there. If the Crowd goes off, this Worth goes with them. It is what we call Ground Rent. Th^s Fund God meant for the Town Till. 20 LESSON XVII. Wage For . Work Gold For Bent No More Sweat Here is a Man at work on the Land. See the beads of Sweat on his Brow. He earns his Bread, and it is Sweet to hina. It is a fair Wage for his Work. This is the Law as God has made it : No Toil, no Bread ; much Toil, much Bread. But see the Man next to him. He has a big Bag and it is full of Gold, but he does not Work at all. And, bless my Heart, Child, look ! it is the Same Man ! He has quit Work. What does this Mean ? How does he get more Gold now, though he does no Work, than he got when he did hard Toil ? Why, you see, he got a Deed of the Land he used to work on, and a Town is now built on that Land, so now he lives on the Gold which the Folks of that Town have to put in his Bag each Year in the form of Land Rent. For what ? For the Right to Live, which he is so Kind as to give them. Ls — iMfiiiif ef J 1 1 LESSON XVIIL One Tax Plan Now In Use For House Rent See the big House. Does the Man own it? Yes. Does he want to make the Most out of it he can with the least Loss? That is just it, my Child. Then what is his Plan ? It is a Plan of Good Sense and marks a Wise Man. It is what I may call the One-tax Plan. What do you Mean? He makes those who Use the House pay for it just by the Size and Kind of Room they rent, so much per Year. Now, he might get his Gain out of it in more Ways. He might make Folks pay who go in or out; he might Lease the Hoist to a Man, and let him charge Fare up and down; he might put a Tax on the Gas used in each room, and he might Charge for all Goods brought in or sent out, and so much per cent, on the Trade done by each Man in the place. But, you see, his One-tax Plan is the best. 22 LESSON XIX. Why Not State Have This Plan For The i.?mcl What are these Men ? They wear Bands on their Hats. Yes. I will tell you Why. Their work is to rake in the Fund which the State takes in the form of Tax. Does the Plan of the State show the Good Sense of that of the Man who owns the big House? No, the State does not just put a Tax on each Man's Land for what it may be Worth, as he does with each Man's space in the House. It does what that wise Man might try to do, as I have said, if he were not Wise. It lets slick Chaps own and run its Hoists (rail roads) for their own Gain; it tries to Tax the Trade each Man does in his own Store, or what he earns by Toil; it puts a Tax on what comes in at the Ports, and on some Things that go out. It is a Plan that Costs Much and is not Just or Fair. 23 LESSON XX. Milk Keeps Calf Bent For State Just Same Law * Oh, see the Cow, and the nice wee Calf Does the Calf call the Cow ma ? Yes, and the Cow loves the Calf. The Calf lives on Milk, which it draws from the Cow. In this we see the greaft Law of God once more. When a Calf is born it needs Milk for Food that it may- Live and Thrive, and so in each case the Cow has Milk for it. If the Milk were kept from the Calf, and it were fed on Hay and Roots, it would be like to Starve, for Milk is its right Food. Now, just as the Cow brings forth Milk for the use of the Calf, so does the Land bring forth a Fund for the use of the State. The Milk for the State we call Ground Rent. It is a Fund from which the State could draw all it Needs to serve all its Just Ends, just as the Calf will thrive on the Milk of the Cow. 84 LESSON XXI. Goat Owns Cow Takes The Milk Like Land Lords But see ! What is this ? It is a Goat ! Is it a Calf? No, it is a Goat. But why is it Here, and what does it Mean to do ? Just what you See it do now. The Calf is Tied, you see, and the Goat sucks the Cow's Milk. Goats are fond of Milk, and this Goat has quite a Snap. Is this Right? Well — yes, I Guess it is, for the Goat " Owns" the Cow, and it is a Queer Thing if it can not take the Milk. But what of the Calf? Oh, the Goat "Bought" the Cow, you know, by Leave of the Calf— - which is a Beast of Small Sense — and now, while the Goat takes the Milk for its own Use, the Calf has to be Fed on Things that do not Suit it as well as the Milk would do. Just in this way the State (which is a Calf) lets Land Lords own the Land and Feed on the Rent, while it has to do the Best it can to keep Life in it by a Tax on Goods, and Toil, and so foHh. 25 LESSON XXII. Toil Must Tlius Digs Have Makes Pick Land Wealth What m this ? It is a Man at Work with a Pick. Does he Dig? Yes, he Digs in the Land. What is his Name? We call him Toil. Will he Dig all Day? No, he will Dig but part of the Day, and then he will Eest. He can make as Much in that Time as he Needs for his Keep, and then he will Read so as to Feed his Mind, and Play that he may have Health. You say he can "Make as Much as he Needs." What is it he Makes? > We call it Wealth. This Word just Means all that is got by Toil. But could Toil get any Wealth if he were with his Pick out on the Sea or up in the Air? No, he must be on the Land. Toil and Land are the two Things by which all Wealth is Got, and there is no other Way to get Wealth in all the World. There is not a Thing that Man has, or that he can have, but what comes from Land and Toil. 26 LESSON XXIII. Man Thus His Brings Helps Good Oxen Toil Friend But what do you Call this? It is a Plow and Oxen. Does the Man own the Plow and Oxen? Yes. What does he Mean to do with them? He is on his Way to where Toil is at work. He means to give Toil the Use of the Plow and Oxen in his work on the Land. Is he not a good, kind Man? He is, and he is a firm Friend of Toil. What is the good Man's name? You may read it on his Ox. By the 'ise of the Plow in place of the Pick, you see, he will aid Toil to do much more, and so get much more of a Crop, and this he will, of course. Share with his good Friend, as is but Just, since by the Help he gave so much more Work was done in the same Time. Is it Eight that he should have this Share? I think it is, my Child. I know some try to make out that he is the Foe of Toil, but it is not like a Foe to Help one, is it? He and Toil are Friends. 27 LESSON XXIV. Toil Now Worm And Quite Eats Friend Mad Fruit Who are these two Men, and why do they Dance and Tear as if they were Mad? They are Toil and his Friend. They have done the Work, and now they are mad at the Worm which eats the Fruit. You see the Fruit is Wealth — that is, what was got by the Joint Work of the Two on the Land. The Fruit is to be cut in two Parts, one for Toil, which we call his Wage, and one for his Friend, which we call In-ter-est. Is it Strange that they are Mad at the Worm, which means to Eat up most of the Fruit? Did the Worm help them to get this Fruit of Work? No; but the Worm owns the Land out of which they have to get all the Wealth that can be got, and so it Claims its share in the form of Rent. But the Worm does no Work. It's Plan is to let them Work, and then take Toll. 88 LESSON XXV. Coats For Boots Fair Square Trade Both Make Gain See the Man with the Coat. Did he make the Coat? Yes, he did. It is his Forte to make Coats. And see the Man with the Boots. He made the Boots, and he gives all his Time to that Line of work. What do the Men mean to do now? They have come to Trade. The Coat Man wants Boots, and the Boot Man wants a Coat, so when they Trade their Goods both will Gain by it. They give Goods for Goods or Work for Work. And then they ^o and make like Trade with the Men who make Bread, and Hats, and Shirts, and Stoves, and all things else that they Need. But they do not Have to do it just in this Way. They sell their Boots and Coats for Coin of the State, and with this Coin they buy what they Need. But, of course, the Coin stands for Work that has been done. 29 ^ LESSON XXVI. Land Coats But Lord And Gives Gets Boots Nought Here we have the same two Men once more. And a Fat Man is with them. Each gives him Goods. One gives him a Coat, which he has Made, and one gives him a Pair of Boots. This is a fair Trade, too, is it Not? Does the Fat man give Goods ? No, I do not see that he Does. He holds no goods in his Hands. He has them spread as if to Get and not to Give. Then why do the Men give him their Goods? Ah! he gives them Coin, that is it? No, he does Not. He has not Paid them a Cent for these Things, Then I give it up. It is quite plain, my Child. He owns the Land, and he just gives them Leave to make Coats and Boots on it. That is all he gives. Is he not Good? He owns a Lot in the Town on which they have their Shops. 30 LESSON XXVIL Man Folks Have O^iis Want To Spring Drink Pay But if that Fat Man owns the Land, should we not Praise him that he lets the Men who make Coats and Shoes live on it, so they may Work, and should they not be Glad to Pay him for its Use ? Yes, they should, If he does "Own" it. But that is the Point. The Law lets him Own it, but did God mean Land to be so dealt with? See the Cut up at the top of this Page. Is it not the Same sort of Thing ? Here is a Man who owns a Pool in the wide, hot Plain, and he has a barb wire Fence round it. The poor Folks are Dry and Faint with their Long March, and come to the Pool to Drink. They must Drink o Die. But he will not let them Drink if they do not give him a great Share of the Goods they have brought so far, or a lot of Gold. Is he not just like the man who owns Land so as to live on Kent ? 31 LESSON XXVIII. Want The Earth You May Own ^ By Law Here is the World. It is a big Ball, is it not ? Yes, it is Big. Do you Want the Earth ? Yes, but may I Have it? So far as the Law goes. Yes, you May. The Law, you know, lets you " Own " a Lot. If you may thus own One Lot, you may own Two, and if Two then Ten, and the Law Draws no Line to say where the Thing must End. You may Own the whole Globe, so far as the Law goes. And Oh, what a heap of Rent you could get if you did own it! All Men would have to Pay you or Get Off your Land. They would have no Right to Live but by your Will, though God gave them the Right to Life. We want to Mend this Law, so that no Man shall Own Land who does not Pay each Year its Fair Worth as bare Land to the Till of the State. 32 God Man Made Must Land Use LESSON XXIX. Not For Spec. If a Man may not Own Land, how is he to Live, since all he Needs for his Life is got out of Land? A Man does not Need to Own Land; it will Serve all his Ends quite well if he may have the safe Use of Land, and be left in Peace with no Fear that any shall come to Turn him Off. To Own Land and to Use Land are by no means the same Tiling. Do you see the Dog in the Cut ? Well, he Owns the Hay, to make Gain out of it. And the Ox wants to Use the Hay. Now, just as Hay was Meant to be Used by Oxen and not to be Held by Dogs, so Land was made to be Used by Men and not Held by Drones. Now, if the Rent of the Land is put in the State Till, then no one would Hold Land who did not mean to Use it. There would be no Spec, in it as there is now„ 33 ^<c LESSON XXX. Not But Would The It8 We Land Worth Tax Do you see this Man? He does not Look as if he were Rich, does he ? And you can see that he Works hard. Yet this Man owns a big piece of Land. He owns a Farm ; a great, wide Farm. And now \qoV at the Man with the Plug Hat. You can see he is a Rich Man by his Style, and his Hands f-re Soft and White. He does no Work to Speak of. Yet the Land he owns is but a Small Lot. Now, does it Look as though to own Land was the sure Way to get Rich ? Ah, I see your Point. It is not the Land that Tells the Tale, but the Worth of the Land — its Worth in Rent each Year. The Town Lot which the Rich Man owns is Small, but its Rent each year is Ten Times that of the Big Farm. It is the Rent that we w^ould Tax, not the Space, and this Town Man would pay Ten Times more than the Farm Man, 34 LE8SON XXXI. How Of Help Would One Farm Plan Tax Man Here is the Man who Works that Farm. He comes to us and sayn, "Yes, I am Poor; 1 can but make Ends meet these Days if my Health is good and my Crops fair. Now, how would this One-tax plan of a Tax on Land Rent help me?" We will Tell him. It would help You this way : the Tax on your Farm would not be High, for the Rent of your Land each Year is not a great Sum. You pay that out of what you Earn, and then you keep the Rest. The Tax on your Barn, House, and so on, is Gone. Store goods would be Low, for there would be Free Trade, and you could Sell your Grain for at least as Good a Price as you now get. The Tax wt'ight would fall on the Town Lots which are of High Worth, where it Ought to fall. You would Gain in this, that you would be Free of much Tax weight you now Bear. 86 LESSON XXXII. Help And Squelch Toil His Land Much Friend Lord Here we have Three Men, and one of them is Hurt. He is, in fact, Laid out Flat, for a big Stone is on him. Yes, it fell on Him and he is No More. You see his Name on his Hat. That is how the One Tax would Work. It would Squelch the Man who just Lives on Land Rent. But it would not Hurt the two Men who now Dance with Glee, as you see. Their Names are on them, too. They Hold land but to Use it, and when they Pay the State for its Use, they Keep all they Earn; no part of it has to go for a Tax of any Sort. What they make is their Own ; but the Land is the State's, and it is Right they should Pay for its Use. Do not cry for the Man that is Down. The Man who Just Lives on Rent is of no more use to the World than the Flea or Bed Bug. 36 "Hunt LESSON XXXIII. Three This Would In Tax Help One Plan Two But what Man is this ? This is the Plain Man we meet Day by Day, like You or Me. He Works with Head or Hand, and so he is a La-bor-er ; he has put Cash in some Line of Trade, and so we Call him a Cap-i-tal-ist ; and he Holds Land as well, and thus is a Land Lord. Thus you see he is a Three-in-one Man. Most of us in this Day are such, and so it is Well to Know that the One Tax on Land Rent would Help and Aid us in Two of our Three Parts, much more than it would Hurt us in the Third. It would be a great Good to All who Work with theii* Hands, Heads, or Means, for it would let them Keep all they Earn, which they may Not do as the Law now is, but it would be Sure Death to the Man who does No Work, but just Lives on the Toil of those who do. 87 LESSON XXXIV. Cop Steals Tax With For On Club State Goods See the Cop with the Club ! What is he at ? He is at his right Work. What! Is it, then, his Work to Rob this Man of the Bread he has made? A Part of it — Yes. The Man who makes Bread has to give up some Loaves each year to the State in the shape of Tax, just as the Man who makes Shoes, and he who makes Coats, and so on, have each got to Give Up some of the Things they have Made. The Cop stands for the Law that takes these Goods. But why does the Cop have to do so? For this cause: As you see in the Cut, the Land Lord has Gone Off with the Fund from Land Rent which would have been all the State needs; and now the Law must send the Cop to Rob in this Way to make up for the Loss of the Fund. Is it not a Queer way to do? 38 Li: SON XXXV. Load Make Land Poor Up Lord Toll Fund Takes Who is this Man with the great Load on his Back? That is Toil. This means that the Plan of the State now is to put the Tax Load on those who Work, and the Things they make by their Work. Some of this Tax is Straight, and you See and Know how much it is; and Some of it is Put On in a Shnpe that you can not well See and Count. But why does the State pile the Tax on Toil when there is a Fund which Springs out of the Land ? See, it goes in to the Fat Man's Hat, though he does not Work. Is not this what God meant as a Fund to help the State? It is, but Man is so Wise, he thinks he Knows more than God, so he lets that Fund go to the Man who Owns the Earth, and in its Stead he Piles the Tax on to poor Toil. But the State is a Firm Friend of Toil, is it not i Oh, yes. As you will See. LESSON XXXVI. State High Wall Keeps Out Goods Lets In Men What is this ? It is a High Wall. It is built by the Wise State all round the Bounds of the Land to Keep Out Cheap Goods that Foes might want to Send in. But if the Wall keeps out Cheap Goods, the like Goods our own Men make will be Dear, will they not ? Yes, they May, but you see we will Keep our Cash in our own Land, so we can Buy even if they are Dear. And more, they will not be Dear long, for lots of Works will be set up, and the Price will soon Fall to a Fair Rate. And poor Toil will soon get Rich, will he not? So they Say. But see! there is a Hole in the Wall, and All who Please may come in to Beat down Toil in his Wage. Toil must buy Dear Goods, but Work for a Cheap Wage. That is what it Means, but Toil Votes for the Wall! 40 FEB 18 li .^ LESSON xxxsm^ Tj^Zr^^ ,*■-'• Pools And Trusts Their Long: Heads Dupes Get Left But do you See these Men all Bound by a Rope? Yes, I see them. Did the State Tie them this way? No, they did it out of their own Long Heads. It is what they call a Pool or a Trust. You see, when a Lot of Works start up in a Land that has a Wall round it, and they all make Goods of the Same Kind, the Land is soon Full and Down goes the Price. So they all go in to a Trust. They Join Hand in Hand as it were, and Put Down the Wage of Those who Work for them, and cut off the Flew of Goods, and keep up the Price. It is a \jrreat Scheme, is it not? It is. And that is where poor Toil and his Mates are made Dupes and get Left, though they Vote to Build the Wall. Toil and his Like are Geese that the Men with Long Heads pluck. 41 // LESSON XXXVIII. Too Such Yet Much Bad Folks Goods Fix Starve This Man has a Great Store of Goods, has lie not? Yes, far More than he Likes to have. He is one of the Trust Men, and he would like to Sell his Goods, but can not do so, for the Land is Full. Then why does he not Send them off in boats to Strange Lands and Sell them? He would be Glad to do so, but he can Not, They are too Dear, as the Things they are made of have to Pay a High Tax to Pass in through the Wall. And then, if he Sold them in a far Land, he would have to take Goods of that Land for his Pay, and then when he brought those Goods home he would have to pay a High Tax on them. So you see he is in a Bad Fix. And wliile he Weeps that he has all these Goods piled up which he can not Sell, the Poor cry out for such Goods but can not Buy them, and are like-ly to Starve. 42 LESSON XXXIX. Soup But Right Is We To Good Want Work "The Poor ye have With You all the Time," said the Lord, and Some seem to Think it would not be Right to fix our Laws so that no Man need Beg who is fit to Work and Wills to do so. And so those who Think this will lend no Hand to Mend the state of Things which we now have, by which some grow Rich who Toil not nor Spin, and some are like to Die though they would Fain get Work to do. But such folks have Kind Hearts, of course, and they do not Fail to give Alms to the Poor, so that they may be Kept in Life. They will give of their Means that the Poor may have Soup, and they will send them Coal when it is cold. This is all Well, but it Falls Short. Let the Law be Just. We do not ask a Dole, say the Poor ; we ask, as a Right, that we may Work, and to that end may go on to the Land ^vhich God made for All Men. 43 LESSON XL. Pull So Make Down Far Rents Wall Good High See these Men. They Smash the Wall ! That is Well. They know that Alms will not Cure the Case of the Poor if kept up to the end of Time, but will in fact make Bad Worse. So these Men say, We must make the Law more Just to All. But they do not Mean the Land Law; they are quite in the Dark as to the True Cause of the 111. They say, Let us have Free Trade. We must not Tax all for the sole Good of the Few. Let us have Free Trade — that will make things Hum. So they go to Work to tear down the Wall that was built to keep out cheap Goods. This is all right. But when it is Done, and great Crowds pour in, and things do " Hum," it will just put up the Rent of Land, which goes to the Purse of the Land Lord, and in the End things will be just in the Same State with those who Work. 44 LESSON XLI. John liongr Yet Bull Tom Has Wall DoTvn Poor Who is this ? This is the Old Gent who rules half the World. His name is John Bull, and he is a Fine Old Boy. He tore down his Wall long ago, and Things did Hum with him for a Time, there is No Doubt of that. He took the Lead of all the Earth in Trade, and he Holds it Yet. But what of his Poor? Why, he still has Poor in the Slums, and Things grow Worse each Year with them. But he has Some far more Rich, too, than he used to have — some who have Gold they can not Count. Why is this? It is the same Old Song — the same Sad Truth. A Few Men own John Bull's Land, and the Rest have to Pay them for the Boon of Life. So you see from this that to Tear down the Wall is not All that must be Done to put an End to the Bad State of Things we speak of. 46 LESSON XLII. John And Sam Both Have Poor y In Same Boat See the Boat and the Two Men in it! They are in the Same Boat, are they not? Yes, such is the Case. One is John Bull, and one is Sam. They speak the same Tongue and are Good Friends, I am glad to Tell you. But they Both find the same Sad State of Things all Kound them, though John has an Old Small Land, and Sam has a New Wide one. They see the Kich and the Poor side by side. Trade Dull, Men out of Work, Some that Die for lack Qf Food, and Some that go on Tramp, while the Bich give Balls, and Drink Wine, and Feast, and have so much Gold that they know nf)t what to Do with it. What is the Cause? The Same in each Case. A few Men own the Land, and take Toll of all the Rest. Is this not Plain? It is. And yet these two Wise Men do not seem to See it. 46 LESSON XLIII. Sam John Both Cute Hard Mere Chap Head Dupes See the Fat Man take a ride on a Team! Yes. Sam may be a Cute, Sharp Chap, as no doubt he is, and John has a Hard Head, as we all know — but it is Plain that both are Blind to the Fact that they are the Dupes of the Law by which Land is held as if it were a Thing men might ** Own." The Land Lord rides on the Backs of Both thest^ smart Men, and they will not be Free to Stand up Straight, and Breathe with Ease till they have Thrown him Off. If just ONE Man held the Land of John Bull, and but One held that of Sam, the Thing would be Plain. But as there are quite a Few who take the Fund which ought to go to the State, they do not See it. And they still cry out, "How Is it that we can not Stand up Straight?" The One-Tax plan would make the Land Lord get off and go to Work like the Rest of us. 47 LESSON XLIV. Fat Owns State Man Things Should Rich Which Hold My Child, to make the Point Clear, let us just take all the Rich men of the Land and roll them in to One big Fat Man; and then Take all the Poor and put them in One Gaunt, Thin Wretch. Here we have the Fact as it is this Day. You say, if Men are Good, and if they have Care and Thrift and do not Diink, they may Get On. Yes, that is True. But Both these Men you see here are the Same on those Points, and yet One has more Gold than he can Use or Count, and One is in Want of a Meal. Did the Rich Man Earn this Gold? No; it came from Land Rent, or from the Fact that he Owns Things which Ought to be Held by the State for the Use of All, or that the Law gives him a Chance to get More for his Goods than he could get if there was Free Trade. 48 LESSON XLV. Cows Near Barb Must • To Wire Stai-ve Grass Fcnc< Do you See all these Cows? Yes, I See the Cows. See how their Eyes Stick Out. They want Grass to Eat, and there is a great Field of Grass close by. Why do not the Cows go and Eat the Grass ? Ah ! why not ? You may not see that Barb- Wire Fence, but the Cows see it, and feel its Barbs. That is Why they Starve in sight of Grass. That Fence is just like the Law that keeps Men from the Land. No Man would Starve if he could get to the Land to Work. But the Land is not Free. It is Held, and you must Buy it or pay Rent for it, or you can not Have the Use of it. If you can not Pay you are then in the same Case as the Cows here, and must Starve, if some Kind Man does not come and Give you Food as an Alms. 49 LAND ^LiiL LESSON XLVI. Rod Drink Man Strike For Owns Kock All Land You Know how God came to the Help of the Tribes He led out of the Dark Land. At one Place, the Good Book tells us, He sent them Food which fell on the Ground, and each Man was Free to pick up a Share. If some Man had Held that Land on a Deed, that Food would have been His, and All would have had to Pay him for it. And you have Read how, when the Tribe was in need of Drink, God told the Head Man to Strike the Rock with his Rod, and when he did so a Stream burst forth for the Use of All. Just so is it Now. God gives us the Land, and if we Strike the Land with the Rod of Toil, a Stream of Wealth will come Forth. This God means Each One of us to Use for his own Life. But if the Rock in that Old Time had been Held by some Big Man, he would have made them Pay him for the Drinks. 50 LESSON XLVII. Men Land No Want ' Needs More Work Plow AlU18 The good Man who was at the Head of a Town in the West saw a great lot of Men who had no Work and were so Poor they had to Live on Alms. At the same time he saw a Great Deal of Land near by that was not in Use. So he got Leave of Those who Held the Deeds of the Land to let some of the Poor Use it, and then he Gave them Spuds and set them to Work. You ask, How did it Turn out ? Why, each of the Men who got the Use of a Lot got so much of a Crop for his Toil that he had no Need to ask for Aid from the Town. Give Toil the Use of Land and that is all you need Do. But did not the Land Lords help \ Oh, yes. Much ! They Got Out of the Way. The One-Tax Plan would make Land Free to Toil. 61 LESSON XLVIIL Work Steam Wild The All Men Thiiigr Wrong Wise What have we Here ? Are these Wild Men? They Look like it, do they not? They were once Men who had come up to a High State of Life, up to the Point where We are now in this good Age and Land. But they found that Things got in to such a Fix some how that there was not Bread for All, and Work could not be Found for those who were Out of Work. Then thev saw what a Bad Thing Steam was, and all the Means that were used in Mills, and so forth, to save Toil; so they went to Work and broke up all the Belts and Wheels so that all Work must be done by Hand. And in this way, by Force of the Truth they now Saw, they were led Back, step by step, to the State in which Man was in what we call the Dark Age; in Short, they were once more Wild Men of the Woods. 52 LESSON XLIX. Wealth What Steam Not Men Good Work Want Thing But is it not a bad Thing to Rob Men of Work, as is now Done in Mills wliere Goods are not Made by Hand but by Steam, and where a Loom with two Men can do the Work it took a Score of Men to do some Time ago? If Work is the Thing Man wants, then this is Bad. But Man does not want Work for its own Sake. He will do Work, and do it with a Will, but it is for the Sake of That it gets for him. It is a Means to an End, and that End is Wealth, or the Things which meet his Needs. If he could get these Things Free he would not ask for Work. And if by Steam such Things can be made with Ease, and more of them for the same Toil, it ought to be a Good Thing for all Men. Why, then, does it not Bless and Aid all? The Cause is that Some by Law get More than a Fair Share, and so Some must get Less. 68 j|l,IIII.M,.ll.] ■iJlll.l.'IIITnTTT LESSON L. Lots Yet For Of Too The Boom Small Crowd What is This ? It is a Map. It is a Land they call the States. A few Yeai's back it Held no folks too Poor and none too Rich. All were Well to do. This was in the Day when the West was New, and men Fled to it from the Old World. The Land was Big and Wide and Fit to Hold all Men on Earth if they Came, and give them Food, Clothes and Homes. Now, though the Land is just as Big as it was then, this is not the Case. Though it is far from Full, yet it has too much of a Crowd, and one Class is in the Slums, while a few are so Rich that Kings might well Stare at them. How is this ? Has the Land Shrunk ? Yes, you might Put it that Way. There is no Free Land to be had where a Man could Live. The Land Lord now Owns it All. That is the Whole Tale in One Word. 54 LESSON LJ. Same Through Land Old The Lord Songr World Cause . It is the Same in all the Lands on Earth as in the Map we have seen. Some Few Own ihri Land, and the Crowd is Shut Out. But would it Cure this to pay Land Rent to the State in a Tax? Is this not the Same Thing as to pay it to a Land Lord ? Is it not the Same Sum, that is, the Worth of the Bare Land each year? Yes, my Child, it is the Same Sum, but by No Means the Same Thing. For, see, Look at the Cut on this Page. That Shows you Where the Odds come in. When you have paid Land Rent to a Land Lord, you still have Rates to pay to keep up the State. The Land Lord has no Power to set you Free of These. But if you pay Land Rent to the State, that is your One Tax. You pay No More, and you have a Right to Keep all you Earn, as there would Now be no Tax on Toil. 65 LESSON LII. If All Men / The Earth Hand Shares Round You see this Man and what he is At? Yes. He has a Knife and it is his Aim to Cut up the Earth so as to give Each Man his Share. He is a Crank, is he not? That is Just what he Is. And yet you Tell me all the While that all Men have a Right to the Land. If so, is it not a Wise thing to Cut it up and Share it Round? My Child, the Thing could not be Done, and if it were Done it would not Stay Done for more than a Week. If the Man cut up the Earth in to Squares, and gave each Man in the World a Square, it would not then be Right, for all the Squares would not be of the Same Worth, and so all Men would not be on the Same Plane. And yet I do tell you Once More that, though the World can not be Cut up in to Just, E-qual Squares, yet all Men have the same Right to Own the Earth. 56 LESSON LIII. Men Own Horse Share Beast Round But Don»t Say Here is a Horse, and the Three Men you see own him, each One Third. Now, they do not Cut up the Horse so Each may get his Share, do they? No, nor do they Wish to do so. They let the Fourth man Use the Horse and he Pays Hire for such Use. The Sum of the Hire goes in to the Till each Year, and it is not Hard to See how they can make Three Shares of it. So you see in this Way they All cjet their Rights, and it is just the same as if they Cut up the Horse. So with the Land. If those who Hold and Use Land pay the Rent or Hire of it to the Till of the State, and this Fund is used for the Good of All, is not that the Same Thing as if all Men had a Share of the Land? Sure! This is what would be Done by the One-Tax plan. It is Plain as the Nose on your Face. 67 Ail. LESSON LIV. One Plain Work Tax Slick Like Plan Just Charm But you Ask me, my Child, if it would not be a Hard thing to put this One-Tax plan at Work. No; it would not be Hard. We would just have to Wipe out each Tax we now have, and in its Place put the One Tax on Ground Kent — the Sum each Year that each Piece of Land, as Bare Land, is Worth. There would be far less Toil to do this than to do what we now (try to) do. There would be no Need to Pry and Sneak as by the Plan now in Vogue, nor would there be so much need of Lies as now. We just put the Till of the State be-low the Land Lord's Hat, which Holds the Ground Rent, and then we make a Rent of a New Kind in the Crown of the Hat, and There You Are. The Fund now goes not to Him, but to Those who Made it; to wit, the Folks who make up the State. It would work like a Charm, my Child. LESSON LV. Land Rent Comes Free And Full Tax Nought Else But if there is but One Tax on Land Kent, will not Those who Use no Land go Free of Tax? And do you Think it is a Fair Shake to let Some who may be Rich go Free, while you Tax their Mates, who may not be so Well Off? Well, my Dear, I do not see how any Man can g«t on if he does not Use some Land in some way. The Man in the Cut says he will not Pay — but you see he can Fly. I hold that we do no Wrong when we put the Tax on one Thing, and say all who use this Thing shall pay. If some do not have to Pay, it must be that they do not Use the Thing, and Those who do Use it do so for this Cause, that it Pays them to Use it. They make no Wry Face now when they have to pay a Land Lord for the Use of Land ; why should they Howl when they are Told to pay the same Sum to the State ? LESSON LVI. Why Tax Toil When Land Rent Pays All Costs And now I ask you one Thing, my Child. If by the Tax on Land Rent we just take the Fund which is made by All, and if we Find that Fund to be Quite as Large as the State needs for All its Ends, why should you Want to have a Tax puf^ on any thing Else? Why do you want to Rob a Rich Man of what he Earns in a Fair way more than if he were a Poor Man? Is a Tax jmt on for Spite? Now, if an An-gel from the Sky came down each Year and gave our State a Till full of Gold, Free of Charge, would you not Say the State should then set us all Free of all the Tax we have now to Bear ? Of course ! Well, my Child, the Fund we call Land Rent comes to us as Free as if it were sent from the Sky each year. No Man has to Work to Make it. It comes from the mere Fact of the Crowd. «o LESSON LVII. Fat Rich 3Ieii Get Their Wealth Through Bad Laws See the Fat Men in the Cut. They Toil not nor do they Spin. And yet they are Rich. Rich is no Name for it. What are they at here? They are at Work. This is all the Work they do — just Hold out their Hats for Gold. See the Pipes that pour out the Gold. The Fat Men own the Pipes, and the Pipes Tap the Wealth that is made by the Toil of the Mass of Men. One Branch of the One-Tax plan is to Tax Land Rent and Nought Elst», and the next Branch is to have the State take Charge of these Pipes which should be held by the State for all. If that were done We should have no Men in this World quite so Fat as we now See. Each Man would have to get Fat on his own Work, and All would have more Joy in Life. 01 LESSON LVIIL Kick Laws Stop And Made Their Howl Right Game See how the Rich Men Kick and Howl now. Why do they Kick? Do you not see that a Stop has been put to the Flow of Gold in to their Hats ? How has this been Done ? By the new Plan we call the One-Tax. The Land Kent which they have Kept up to this Time? now has to be Paid in to the Till of the State as a Tax. And as for Pipe Two, as shown in last Cut, that is now Held ')y the State, as it Taps Lines of Trade in which there is not a Free Field for All. It is Right that such Lines of Trade should be in the Hands of the State, and that is a part of the One-Tax plan, as I have told you. What will the Rich Men do Now? Well, if they want More Wealth, they will have to Work for it. But in days to Come, with the One-Tax plan in Vogue, We will have no more Men who get Rich in the Way they got their Gold. LESSON LIX. Would Coal Muke Soon King's Fuel Stop Scheme Cheap Do you See these two Men ? One is Poor and out of Work, though when he does Work he gets but a few Cents per day. He digs Coal in a Mine, The Fat Man and a few of his Chums own the Mine. And Month by Month they meet and lay down the Law as to How Much Coal shall be Dug, and what the Price shall be. Thus are they like Kings in a Land which we call Free. How will the One-Tax plan set this Eight? Well, you see, the Coal Land they hold now bears but a Light Tax as Wild Land. By the One-Tax plan it will have to bear a Tax at its full Worth as Coal Land, and can not be Held out of Use as it now is. These Coal Kings must then Keep their Mines at Work All the Time, so as to make them Pay More than the Tax, or let them go, and so Set the Land Free that those who Wish may Dig Coal. 63 LESSON LX. Not Take liiind But Just Kent That All Here is a Sign Post such as you See now when you take a Walk in the Town. What does it Mean ? It Means that some Man Holds the Land, not for Use, but to make Gain in Case some one Else wants to Use it. He will get this Gain in the form of Rent or Price, while the Man who Takes it Works — thus he Lives on the Sweat of that Man's Brow. Does tne One-Tax plan Mean to take this Lot from the Man who now Holds it? Not at all. The Lot will have to Pay a tax — just the Sum the, Man would now Kent it to this Chap for. If he pays that Tax he can still Hold it and keep . it Bare. If he does not Need it for Use, he will Drop it, and let the Man who does Need it take it and pay the Tax. You see it is Land Rent and not Land the State will take from those who now Hold it. 64 LESSON l.XI. Plain Does Wastes Good Not His Man Know Tears Who is this Man, and why does he Weep? He is a Plain, Good Man, who Works at a Trade, and has by Years of Toil got a Nice wee Home all paid for. And he sheds Tears now at the Thought of the One-Tax plan which will Rob him of the Land he Owns, and do him much Harm. Poor Chap ! He Means well, but he does not Know. He will by no means be Hurt, as he Thinks. In the First place, his Bit of Land will have to pay a Tax as bare Land, and as it is not Large, nor in a Fine part of the Town, that Tax will not be a Great one. But that One Tax will be All. His House will be Free, and all the Goods he has; and he may Build and Paint and Mend things all he Likes, and there will be no more Tax, nor will there be any Tax on what he Wears, or Eats, or Earns. 05 LESSON LXll. Stop Lay Make Drink Down Things Curse Arms Worse Here is a Man with a Gun; he is in the Troop. And next to him is a Man who Drinks ; and next is a Jail Bird, and next is a Sick Man. Each of These is just one of a great Crowd of his Class. It is the Aim of Good Men to have Peace on Earth, so that no Men need to Fight; and to stop Gin Mills and all their Ills^ and to make all men Good so there need be no Jails, and to Heal all the Sick on Earth. This is a good Work, is it not? But if so much of the Earth has a Barb Wire Fence round it, and is Held by those who Own it ; and if the World is now so Small that there is not Work for All who now ask for Work, would it not make things a deal Worse if Good Men could Reach the Aim they are at, Break up the Jails, Heal the Sick, Stop the Drink, and so on? Would it not Add new Crowds to the Out of Works ? 66 LESSON LXIII. ' Land Still Can't Lord On Down Stays Top Him What does this Cut Mean ? It Means that the Land Lord is on Top all the While, and it is True. He is just like a Cork that Floats on a Stream. If the Tide comes in and the ^ Stream gets High, Up goes the Cork. It is still on Top, and you can not Down it. Just so, if we had Free Trade in this Land or if we shut out the Drink that does so much Harm, and if Thus we made the Land bloom with new Life, what would it Do? It would bring more Folks, and the Town would Grow. We would have more Works, and more Hands, and 80 Goods would go Down in Price, V)ut the New Crowds would need Land to Stand on, and have Homes on, and as we can not Make more Land than there now is, Up, Up, Up would go its Worth — the Rent for the Purse of the Land Lord. LESSON LXIV. Fine Free Land Bright Street Rents Town Cars Rise It would be a Fine, Bright Town that would have Free Street Cars, would it not? No Town yet has such a Snap as that. But if ^it had, and Fine Parks as well, and all Things that Heart could Wish for, who would Gain Most by it ? The Men who own the Land, to be sure. It would be Worth more to Live in such a Place, would it not ? And Folks would Flock in, would they not ? Yes ; and when they Got there, the Chaps who Own the Land of the Town would just put up the Rent of the Land so as to make the Cost of Life in that Town as High as in Towns where they have to Pay to Ride in Street Cars, and have Few or None of the Good things I speak of. The Land Lord owns the Toll Gate, my Child, as you see, and he does not Fail to get his Toll, Rain or Shine. 68 LESSON LXV. Squid Eats Men One Tax Plan Spear That Kills Have no Fear, my Child: it can not Get Out to Eat you. It is a Thing of Vile Shape, is it not? What is it? It is what they call a Squid. It lives in the Sea, and Eats Men if it gets hold of them. It lives on Land, too. And here you see Men caught in its great Arms. There are Words on the Arms to tell )ou vrhat they Mean. Men may Kill Squids in the Sea with Spears, but on Land the thing to Kill them is the One-Tax plan, which will Cut off the Land Arm by a Tax on Kent and will Cut off the liest by a Law which will give All these Lines of Trade in to the Hands of the State, to be Used and Held for All. When that is Done the Squid will do no more Harm; and there need be no more Vile Slums, but all may have a Chance to Live a Clean Life in this World. 69 LESSON LXVI. With Greed Gold Bad Won't Rule Laws Let Work "Do to Men as you would have them Do to You." This is what we call the Rule of Gold. It is Grand and Good, is it not? Men would like to Act on it, too, but they Do not. Why ? They Dare not. They say it is a Fine Rule but it will not Work in our Day, for Biz is Biz. You see, the Cause is this : Each Man now Feels that his Feet are not in a Sure Place. He has Want, or the Fear of Want in front of Him or, so to speak, He has all he can do to Keep the Wolf from his Door. He says, " I must be Just to ray Own, and so I can not be Kind to All. Who knows but I may Lose what I have ? If so, I will need Work to Earn more, and who Knows that I can get Work ? No : I must show Greed like the Rest of Men and get all I can by Fair means or Foul." The Rule of Gold is Good, but it will not Work in this state of Things. 70 LESSON LXVII. Take Make Then First Land Go Step Free On Oh, see the Great Head, and what a Lot of Limbs ! What does this Mean ? This is the State as Some Good Men think it Ought to Be. They would fix Things so that the Few could not Hold Land for Spec. In This they are at One with Us. But they Go On to Say that the Tools of Trade, all the Mills, and Works, and Shops, must be Held by the State as Well as the Land, or Things will not be quite Right. As it is now, they Point out, there is a vast Waste of Toil and Wealth, while those who do most Work are the Ones who Starve. This may be True, my Child, but let us Take the First step First. When we have Made the Land Free, and have put the Rail Roads and such Things in to the Hands of the State, we will have Time to Talk of this Next Step. 71 LESSON LXVIII. How Plan Made One Would Quite Tax Work Plain Now, my Child, we come near to the End of the Book. I hope you see through the Plan of the One Tax and How it would Work. Yes, I Think I Do. The State would take All the Land and Rent it Out. Is not that it? No; You are quite Wrong. The State would Leave the Land with Those who now Own it. It would just tax the Land at its Right Worth, and Each Man who Held it would get a Tax Bill for that Sum each year, to wit, the Sum of the Rent of the Bare Land, and there would be but this One Tax to pay. From the Whole of the Funds thus Got, a Paii; would go to Meet the Needs of the State. There would still be a Good Sum Left, and this would go Back to the Folks at Large in the form of Good Roads, Lights, Parks, and so on. Get this Clear in your Ht^ad, my Child. 72 LESSON LXIX. Hard Who Just On Holds For Chap Land Spec. Now I see what you Mean. But, Pray tell me, would it not be Hard on the Man who bought Land and Paid for it, to put tlie One-Tax Plan at Work and Knock out the Spec, there is now in Land? He paid for it in Good Cash, but if he can not Sell it or Kent it for More than he Gave, will he not Lose the Gain he meant to Make? He will, my Chikl ; but God made Land for Use, and the Man who Lives on Land Rent is of no more Use than the Worm that eats our Vines. The State has a Right to Tax what it Likes, and so it can Tax Land Rent. We may Weep for the Poor Chaps who thus get Hurt, but what of Those who are Hurt in the same way by the Tax we now put on Things in which they Deal? There is the Man who has Built a House for Gain. Do we not Hurt him the same way when we Tax a House? 78 LESSON LXX. See Now And The Go Spread Cat ? Forth Light Now, to }>ring the Book to a Close, I ask you, my Child, Do you see the Cat ? By this I Mean do you see Through the One-Tax Plan, and grasp the Thought that it would in Truth make men Free ? That Thought is like the Trick which you have seen in a Print on a Card, as in this Cut, It is a lot of Trees, and you are tud to Find the C*. At First you can see no Shape of a G 1, but at last you Find it and it is then so Plain you see it with Ease. So when you once see the One-Tax Plan it will Grow on you in the same Way. The Cat is in the Grove at the Top of this Page. And in the square space you read these Words, " A tax on Land Rent will make us Free." I have Shown you how it will Do this, my Child, and now I bid you Good- By. Go Thou and Spread the Light. FINIS. 74 RESTITUTION. Enough ! the lie is euded ; God only owns the laud ; Ko parchment deed hath virtue unsigned by His own hand; Out on the bold blasphemers who would eject the Lord, And pauperize his children, and trample on His ^^ ord ! Behold this glorious temple, with dome of starry sky. And floor of greensward scented, and trees for pillars high. And song of birds for music, and bleat of lambs for prayer, And incense of sweet vapors uprisiug everywhere! Behold His table bounteous, sprea'^! over land and sea. The sure reward of labor, to every mortal free ; And hark! through Nature's anthem there rises the refrain: "God owns the Earth, but giveth it unto the Sous of men." But see, within the temple, as in Solomon's of old, The money-changers haggle, and souls are bought and sold; And that is called an owner^s which can only be the Lord's, And Christ is not remembered, nor His whip of knotted cords. But Christ has not forgotten, and wolfish human greed Shall be driven from our heritage ; God's bounties shall be freed ; And from out our hoary statutes shall be torn the crime-stained leaves "Which have turned the world, God's temple, into a den of thieves ! J. W. Bengouqh. 76